John Louis Home Deluxe 16-Inch Deep Closet Shelving System

My husband and I are experienced do-it-yourselfers. This left us in a bit of a conundrum. We didn't want to buy the melamine stuff at Home Depot or Lowe's it's better than it used to be, but still pretty cheap looking. But we also didn't want to hire a custom place who wants to do it all themselves (at quite the cost) since we could do most of it ourselves. Nor did we want to go with one of the cabinet companies (like American Woodmark or Kraftmaid they make kitchen and bath cabinets, but also have closet options), because that would also be more expensive than we wanted.

We came across this John Louis Home solution originally on the Costco website. Costco sells a complete kit which includes the standard kit as shown here, plus a package of 2 extra tower shelves, 3 8" drawers, and 2 6" drawers. Target.com sells individual components in addition to kits, so we purchased from both places. This seemed like the only available middle-ground: better quality, with some configuration options, but not custom and not top-of-the-line (especially in price). So we ended up buying enough components to fill our fairly large master closet plus two other bedroom closets.

All-told, we installed 4 of the 16" towers with drawers, 2 of the 12" towers with shelves only, plus the connecting shelves and bars. We also installed some extra stand-alone shelves in an alcove in our master closet.

Our review of this suite of products is very mixed. There are some good and some not so good aspects of this system.

The good:

It is solid wood, which gives it a sense of quality and sturdiness

The drawer glides are the type with ball-bearings and full-extension capability. It's really nice to be able to open the drawers all the way and the ball-bearings make for a very smooth glide

As other reviewers here and at Target.com have mentioned, the finished product really does look good

The instructions are pretty clear the install as documented is time-consuming, but accurate and easy to follow

The packaging is quite good. Although most of the boxes sustained some shipping damage, with one very small exception, all the contents were in perfect condition when opened

The John Louis customer service was really good. One of the drawers was missing a cam bolt and none of the others had extras, so I called their 800 number to request a replacement. I got directly to a human without a maze of phone selections, and she was very friendly and professional. She UPSed replacement parts to me right away.

Assembling the drawers is easy.

The not so good and the bad:

Although the drawer glides are smooth, they are also somewhat stiff you can't just nudge a drawer closed you have to push it all the way in.

The screws provided aren't of very good quality they strip pretty easily

The manufacturing is somewhat careless. There are places where the wood was damaged in the fabrication process. They patched those areas with wood filler and stained over. Normally, this wouldn't be a bad thing, but the patch jobs were fairly sloppy. I also had one drawer part with the cam bolt holes mis-drilled, and another drawer part with the track guides on a diagonal, instead of straight across

Installing the drawers is very tedious. Although the tracks go into specified places in the towers (the 16" deep ones), the drawers don't have pre-drilled holes for their half of the tracks just guidelines, which sometimes are right on, and other times aren't at all close

The ugly:

The installation method is unnecessarily complicated, and in our opinion not structurally sound. The towers themselves are quite heavy, especially with drawers. And yet the towers are held to the wall by just 6 thin, 1/2" screws, placed very close to the edge of the wood. The whole thing is also supposed to be supported in the top shelf, which doesn't make sense. We actually ended up using the materials but completely re-engineering the installation process. What we did is much more solid and faster. I would not feel comfortable installing the units as prescribed. I think within a few years (if not sooner) most installations would loosen or have some other structural failure.

Now that it's all done, and looking back, we would still do this again for two reasons (1) we have the expertise to deal with the challenges, and (2) it's still the only option in this class. If there were other options, we'd probably explore those, but there aren't at the moment.

My system (same as here, but honey finish) looks good, but before buying, you should know two things:

1. Unless you get really lucky, you are likely to need a fair amount of experience in rough carpentry to make these systems work in your space. We had to do a fair amount of sawing of wood and metal poles. The hanging hardware requires one-sixteenth-inch precision -not an easy goal in an older home with less-than-square walls. My wife and I are experienced do-it-yourselfers, and needed that experience to come up with a good solution.

2. The wood looks good, but it is really soft and splits along the grain easily. I would not recommend this system for a kid's room. During the installation, we had to take care in putting in screws.

On the plus side, the finish looks good, and I really like the hanger-bar system, which allows free movement of the clothes past the supports.

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Purchased (2) of the Premier version of this system which comes with 12 inch towers to do a 15ft by 7 ft walk in closet. After designing for the most efficient utilization of space, found I had to add two more 16" towers and (4) 2 pack shelves for the back wall and to get my shoes into the tower.I switched the 16 inch towers to one side of the room and place the 12 inch towers (for shoes) on the reverse side of the room. That alone cost another $500. Can you believe that the shelf system 2 pack does NOT come with the pins to attach to the towers? Even though you spend $60 for 4 ft of pre-cut russian pine shelf kit. These bozo's have priced out that you must be nickled & dimed for every shelf pin, bracket or metal attachment at around $ 1.00 a piece when you buy it from one of their dealers. The company itself doesn't sell it in bulk and their dealers are up on Ebay with ads trying to hawk a 4 pack for 4.00 + 8.00

Shipping & handling for a total cost of $12 for four shelf brackets.

What a rip off! After you have spent over $1,000 in 2 closet systems and shelf parts it should at least come with the required shelf pins & brackets.

Plus you can't even get these parts online at Home Depot or Target online.. you are forced back through the John Louis dealer system for these parts. With the economy the way it is I have seen 2 dealers who have gone out of business in my state so I am forced to shop OUT of state & incur a delivery charge for these parts. Not happy.

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Rough finish quality, they use an extremely soft wood that you can score even with your fingernail. I think after a year of use in the kids' closets, these would look like trash. Imperfections in wood filled with putty that doesn't stain and blend with the wood. Even cross slats are often not parallel with each other! Side panels are often warped making drawer operation (if you plan on using drawers) very difficult. The slots for shelves on the vertical pieces look like they were carved with a kitchen knife by a five year old, sometimes these slots are not even from left to right, making the shelves crooked.

Hardware quality varies from mediocre to abysmal: screw heads missing screwdriver slots, brackets that are rusty coming out of the plastic bag, wall anchors cast from plastic, but the casting halves never exactly match, making these a real bear to screw into drywall. I ended up throwing away most of the supplied hardware and buying them new from Lowe's.

Packaging is also very substandard, CHECK PACKAGE FOR DAMAGE BEFORE ACCEPTING FROM UPS!!! Small divots in the outer box translates to broken or cracked wood inside. The thin carton does a poor job protecting the wood inside.

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For less than $2K, I optimized my: two MBR walk-in closets, two guest closets, one office closet, laundry room, linen closet, and coat closet. I'll do the same for basement for not much more.

Now I have tons of storage for all my stuff. Yeah it takes a little bit of work, but it really is worth it. If you are going to buy the wire closet from Home Depot, you had might as well buy a circle saw, and good dry wall anchors, because the work will be about the same, but the results are a thousand times betterlooks like a Macy's or a Nordstrom display case instead of a Walmart.

The deluxe systems only worked for the walk-in closets, I put standard shelving everywhere else. I'd start with the standard closet, and see if you like it.

So in addition to the kit, you also need a few hundred dollars more to buy a good circle saw and blade, carpenters square, level, pencils, painters tape, clamps, good dry wall anchors (togglers), measuring tape, and stud finder, and 2" pipe cutter if you don't already have them.

Then go to a closet website to design it before you start to cut. After the first closet the rest will be easy.

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TechCraft BWNTR48 48-Inch Wide Flat Panel TV Stand - Walnut/Black

• Maximum Load Capacity-100.00 lb.
• Physical Characteristics-Height-22.0.
• Physical Characteristics-Width-48.0.

Very pleased with this purchase. I looked at several different stands and believe this is one of the Best constructed and Great looking. I would recommend this to anyone looking for a television stand.

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These stands are great, heavy, easy to assemble and nice looking. I would highly recommend this stand for anyone who needs shelving space and strength to hold all their "stuff".

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This stand is easy to put together, no tools needed and looks great. At half the price an excellent value.

Prepac Floating Wall Double Media Storage

It is a pretty nice looking shelf/rack and it does fill the purpose.

There are some problems in in the details, but the price is not high end, so take it for what it is worth.

This is one of the few choices avaiable for a shelfing unit.

Pros:

1. Decent appearance

2. Solid (with glue added)

3. Easy wall mounting (screws not provided)

4. Pleanty of shelves included ( I have mine holding 3 rows of DVDs and one short shelf and still have 2 unuued shelf boards.

Cons:

1. Mine has a slight crease in the back board (not a huge problem but it is there)

2. Having the shelves bare on the bottom is just plain poor design for an item made to hang on a wall. Keeping the shelves tight to the size of the DVD/CD cases helps, or a black little paint would fix it.

3. Screw covers do not stay in place and edges are not large enough to completely cover the silver color of the screws.

4. The framing hides the fist DVD case on each shelf on the outer edge (not huge but just a poor detail design).

5. Use glue during assembly (will be much more solid in the long run)

6. Slightly overpriced for what it is, but it weighs 38 lbs to ship.

7. Would have ben nice if it was slightly taller, just a few inches short of being able to make all shelves able to hold DVDs

This is a complete kit. Everything you need will be in the carton, but there are no labels on the parts. You need to carefully identify all the pieces before you begin. The instructions could be a lot clearer, but after putting it together & taking it apart at least twice, I feel comfortable in saying that it should take less than a half hour. The finished product is beautiful and I would recommend this to anyone needing a high class wall mounted CD/DVD storage unit.

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I bought 2 units one for my multimedia and one for a book shelf which are mounted on each side of my 52 inch flat panel. Sturdy and not cheap looking. Although a little expensive you get what you pay for.

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It's very simple to assemble. It probably took 15 minutes on the dining room floor. A few parts were too tight, but I was able to remedy the problem with a sharp utility knife. I haven't fully loaded the shelves with DVD's and CD's, but it looks like it should function as advertised.

There isn't any "real" wood in the construction; this shelf won't be appearing on the Antiques Road Show in 100 years...

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No, it's not "real wood", but I didn't expect real wood given the price. Assembly was a bit frustrating in that nothing is marked although there aren't a zillion parts, it would have been a quicker assembly had "this side front, this side back" or similar been included as I found myself unassembling and reassembling a few times. Also, the "backer" (back panels) are to be overlapped, something that's not clear on the instructions and I learned only after realizing there was no other way it would work. Excellent packaging, no chips or nicks, nothing broken (although I was missing one "confirmat screw", not a big deal (the instructions include a date code, telephone number and an email address, the latter of which I used to secure the missing screw). Screws to attach the unit to the wall are not included and the part that attaches to the wall (the unit sort of "hangs" from the "bar" you attach to the wall) does not include predrilled holes this wasn't a problem for me as I have drill and had spare wood screws on hand, but may be helpful for some to know ahead of time when deciding to whether or not to make this purchase.

The shelves use metal dowels, a bonus over the "cheapie/flimsy" plastic dowels one often sees in bookcases and such. Overall, to have DVDs, CDs, and so on all in one location and NOT strewn about the floor or tables or here and there, 5 stars unto itself. No regrets.

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Akro-Mils 30130 12-Inch by 6-Inch by 4-Inch Plastic Nesting Shelf Bin Box, Red,Case of 12

My wife and I were looking for something to store some stuff in our freezer. These bins were perfect in size and withstood both room and freezing temps. The solid construction means they won't warp if you have to pick them up fully loaded.

Our top mounted freezers have been a challenge to organize. One has a single shelf and the other has no shelves at all. It's very difficult to stack and organize frozen food so that it doesn't slide around and tumble.

Originally, I purchased some simple coated wire bins that turned out to be just a tad too long to stack the way I had intended. I hadn't taken the depth of the shelves on the door into consideration when I measured.

These solid bins are shorter and allow me to stack them inside both freezers to keep things organized and stable. I usually repackage meats before freezing them in meal sized portions, usually in quart sized freezer bags. Even stacked, these handy little bins let you glimpse the content and you can easily just lift out the bins to get to the food you need. They work and solve the frozen avalanche problems.

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Spectrum GA4020BEKIT Wallscapes Gallery 8 by 16 by 3/4-Inch, Beech, Shelf Kit

The shelf looks like exactly what I want. Unfortunately, it is missing the screws that hold it to the wall (in TWO packages!). I have returned the first shelf from Amazon, thinking it was a weird accident, and just got the replacement today still no screws.

The direction for the attachment clearly show that it includes screws.

Otherwise, the shelf looks nice and comes well packaged. I just don't know what to do about the missing pieces. I've considered buying screws at Home Depot but I have no idea what kind/size to get I am not good with these things and feel like I shouldn't have to spend money on things MISSING from the package. *ARGH!*

I'm also a little concerned about the shelf itself staying in the bracket. The bracket attaches to the wall, but the shelf just sits in the bracket, it is not attached. The set includes double sided sticky tape to hold the shelf in place, but if you do that, how do you remove the shelf (if you move, for example). The taped-in shelf would complete cover where you would access the (missing) screws!

jebus aint got nuttin on dis shelf. damn, i put my most sacreligious items on dis mo fo and day dont fawl awf. too screws and you on da way ta blasphemy!

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So, this shelf is at best about $20? It measures 8in x 16in x 3/4in and is a faux beech laminate stuck onto either plywood or MDF. Let's give the benefit of the doubt and assume plywood.

Now let's do the math on building this shelf yourself:

$30 Structural grade 8ft x 4ft x 3/4in plywood (not pretty, but who cares, you won't see the grain)

$60 32 sq ft of beech laminate veneer

$?? 5 minutes of cutting time (your worth may vary)

$?? 20 minutes of ironing time (your worth may vary)

Let's assume your free time is worth nothing for now.

The sheet of plywood will cut into 36 shelves of the same dimensions as this one (minus 2-3mm). You cut the plywood into the correct dimensions, iron on the veneer, and you have your shelf.

($60 + $30) / 36 shelves = $2.23 per shelf

Assuming your free time is worth $6/hr:

($60 + $30 + (25min * $0.10/min)) / 26 shelves = $2.57 per shelf

Even at $120/hr, it's only $3.89 a shelf.

It gets even cheaper if you skip the veneer and just purchase a sheet of Grade A beech plywood for about $50.

So, feel free to buy this shelf if you don't value your money, and would like to promote ridiculously overpriced furniture.

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Sauder Camber Hill Panel TV Stand Sap - Sand Pear

It looks great for what im using it for. Just need something not too cheap looking and not overly big due to bigger furniture already in the room.

Ordered and received this on time. Stand was easy to put together and we are using in for a 60" TV. A bit small for this size TV but still works and looks great.

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Nice looking for the price. It is heavy and takes awhile to construct. If you follow the directions and have patience it is not bad.

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I bought this for a 55" plasma that I had purchased, I found out that once the tv arrived it weighed more than the stand was rated for, I added some metal angle brackets on the back, and two pieces of 3/4" plywood on the bottom and a set of wheels. For the price its a great stand

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Wall Shelf without Pegs- Star Finish: Powder Blue

Be warned, the natural lacquer color option looks unfinished not the warm honey/pine color as pictured. Check out Little Colorado's website for better color chart. We had to return or order twice to Accent Furniture. On the 3rd try, we requested the next color up called Honey Oak. We'll see if this works out.

Vantage Light Dragonwood Storage Cabinet Light Dragonwood

This cabinet is just what I hoped it would begood looking without being a show-off, it fits in the corner of my living room/office behind my desk and provides discrete storage for notebooks, office supplies. I can keep the desk surface uncluttered and have all I need nearby and easily accessible. The adjustable shelves and drawer all work well. The frosted glass door creates an open feeling without showing the details on all the notebooks stashed inside.

It took 2 of us 90 minutes to put it togetherthe diagrams were quite clear, all the pieces were there, it only required simple tools.

My cabinet looks darker than the one pictured, more brown than golden, but my furniture is varied, so it fits fine with the things I have.

For the price, it looks good and as long as we don't have to move it much, I expect it will hold up quite well.

4D Concepts Hanging Corner Storage - Black

I absolutely love these shelves. It looks perfect in my room. It was simple to put together, I did struggle a little to get them on the wall by myself but it can be done. It is very sturdy once it is hung and seems to hold a good amount of weight.

My husband put this together and hung it up within one hour, and I'm pretty happy with it. It doesn't sit flush to one of our walls, BUT I'm pretty sure that it's a problem with our wall, not the product. I don't plan on putting anything heavy on this, but it adds a nice look to a normally boring, unused corner of our living room! I may just buy one of these for the landing of my stairwell!

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I was looking for a corner shelf for my office to display some collectibles at work. I think I get more compliments on the shelf than I do my collectibles. Anyway, it was easy to assemble and although I was able to hang it myself, it sure would have been easier if I would have had someone to hold it in place while I marked the screw holes and attached to the wall. All in all, a very nice shelf.

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huge pain to put up! husband and i spent about 2 hours trying to hang this thing up! about 500 huges holes later we mangaged to get it up! looks awesome and get lots of compliments on it

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First thing everyone notices when they are in our basement is this. Always asking where did you get that and saying how much they love it. Looks great in the corner behind our blackjack table and installing it wasn't even that difficult. I did it alone. I would suggest this product. It's nice and sturdy once it's on the wall.